Minnesota is home to a wide variety of agricultural animals that provide us with food and many other items we use every day! My daughters and I thought it would be fun to highlight two breakfast ideas that include products from three Minnesota-grown animals – chickens (eggs), pigs (Canadian bacon) and dairy cattle (cheese). We gathered these ingredients and were ready to try out some tasty recipes and use our new Egg Bites Maker and Breakfast Sandwich Maker. These kitchen gadgets are courtesy of my aunt Pat Schweitzer who works with Hamilton Beach as the consumer test kitchen manager.
Livestock animals, like chickens and pigs and dairy cattle, provide us with nutritious foods to eat, but they also can be an extremely engaging context for learning in many academic areas. Here are a few of our favorite science, social studies and nutrition-based lesson plans and activities that are easily adaptable to hybrid and distance learning.
Chickens
Eggology is a favorite chicken-and-egg themed lesson with strong connections to Minnesota’s Academic Standards in elementary science. We’ve created a HyperDoc based on this lesson that allows students to independently explore the anatomy of an egg and different breeds of chickens. If you are looking for ideas to get your students SUPER EXCITED about exploring life-cycles, check out our Hatching Science Resource Center. These resources provide everything you need to know about incubating eggs and hatching chicks.
Pigs
Did you know there are 9 million pigs on 3,000 Minnesota hog farms? That’s right, we are one of the nation’s leaders in pig production. Have your students but their STEM skills to the test by building a model of a modern pig barn, among other fun activities in our Pigs on the Farm lesson.
Dairy Cattle
Challenging students to follow milk from farm-to-table is a real “Moo to You” adventure! We have a collection of short video stories from Minnesota Dairy farms and also a virtual field trip to Meadow Star Dairy near Murdock, MN that are definitely worth exploring. We also a wide variety of dairy-themed lessons for all K-12 learners:
It’s a MOOstery (K-2)
Whipping Butter into Shape (3-5)
Blue’s the Clue: Sourcing Milk for Science (6-8)
Lactose Lab: Some Don’t Like it Sweet (9-12)
Our Minnesota Agriculture in the Classroom team is here to help educators and parents navigate this crazy time with their K-12 students! Please reach out if we can assist you with anything!
